Mara Buck's Blog
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Dec.30.2012
Weary with work and years,
my father would
never make it through
to midnight and
he would
snore as the ball dropped, and on the
floral sofa --- the one with the dog-chewed arms ---
my mother would
every year nudge him,
there it is,
look it’s happening,
and he would
roll his eyes open...
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Dec.23.2012
It was the Holiday Season and both the Christians and the Pseudo-Christians, as well as those Jews for whom Hanukah had never quite measured up, barraged the stores (both discounted and upscale) in the immense shopping centers, and festooned their homes (both...
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Dec.19.2012
Make sure to include all available ammunition, accessories, heavy metal of all kinds; toss in a can of gun oil or two.
Ribbons, holiday paper to individual taste.
Gather a pailfull of rocks; granite is optimum.
Acquire coffin, hopefully sans occupant, but, if occupied, move body gently over...
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Dec.14.2012
![s-CHRISTINA-TAYLOR-GREEN-large[1].jpg](http://jacksofapple.redroom.com/files/images/s-CHRISTINA-TAYLOR-GREEN-large[1]_1.100x150.jpg)
Do we know the facts? Do we really need to? The words “children shot and killed” are more than enough. Is there a why? Can there ever be? I will repost this, the shooting of another child, not two years ago, evidence that those in American who abide by the...
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Dec.12.2012
There is a small spot of light on the bark of the ash tree.
In winter the bark is subtle, smooth, a non-color.
And this light spot glows as if lit from within, a tiny beacon among the darker trunks.
If it were not for the shadows, I would never have noticed the light.
The...
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Dec.10.2012
Fell asleep last night with my glasses on while reading. Awoke this morning with exceedingly blurry vision. Stumbled to the coffee pot --- luckily I know the way by route. Caffeine not helpful, sight still blurry. At least the blurring is even. Both eyes....
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Dec.05.2012
One sentence ---
In this time of environmental upheaval,
of disasters both natural and man-made,
in this time of ongoing hunger,
disease, and continuing wars,
it is ludicrous,
ridiculous,
absurd,
and an insult to humanity,
to hold the nation and the entire world
hostage to...
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Nov.30.2012
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To my peeps and homies, please excuse, I shall be absent for a nanosecond, because, ahem…
I cannot go out
Today to play,
For I am writing
A book.
Cannot deal with
The superficial,
The insipid,
Inconsequential ---
Please take note,
For I am writing
A book.
Have no time
For you
Or me
Or even...
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Nov.25.2012
![dsc032132[1].jpg](http://jacksofapple.redroom.com/files/images/dsc032132[1].100x150.jpg)
A large NYU building sits on the site of the Triangle shirtwaist fire, and I passed the brass plaque daily when I was a student. What will serve to commemorate the deaths of more doe-eyed girls trapped in Bangladesh one hundred years later?
The Triangle
The brass plaque haunts my...
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4 comments
Nov.24.2012
Despite the recent ceasefire in Gaza, war continues to be the norm, the natural state of affairs in too many spots on this spinning globe. The UN decrees a day in September to be an International Day of Peace. I decree that such a day must be every day. The players change,...
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Nov.21.2012
Let us gather
The spirit is great for some ---
For some, the flesh unwilling.
Remembrance strong-gnawing
At the bloodied bone,
Still screams, massacres
Echo centuries
Of denial and desecration.
A festival of conquest
Becomes a feast of family,
Where this day the uninvited claw
At...
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Nov.20.2012
![41U-+t6GUcL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_[1].jpg](http://jacksofapple.redroom.com/files/images/41U-+t6GUcL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_[1].100x150.jpg){kind=icon}
She lived, she wrote, she died. And just before her end came at ninety-eight, her novel was published by a university press. (Decades earlier, Bennett Cerf of Random House had praised it, yet killed it.) A trick of fate that Steinbeck’s book beat hers to the printers, but...
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Nov.19.2012
Today there are people sweating in the fields, in the mines, in the factories. Today there are other people clinking cocktails on yachts. Is today Labor Day? No, but every day, for many people, is labor day.
My father worked in a brick mill until long...
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Nov.18.2012
![553739_4442789841061_1224687647_n[1].jpg](http://jacksofapple.redroom.com/files/images/553739_4442789841061_1224687647_n[1].100x150.jpg)
Her eyes mirror a thousand tomorrows,
And thousands beyond.
A tide of pain decrees her legacy.
Cassocked men weep
And shrug and turn their heads,
Wash their Pilate-hands.
Martyr to yesterday,
Innocence outshines
The lights of a thousand candle
Flames, begging the
Question...
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9 comments
Nov.17.2012
![201112965939486621_8[1].jpg](http://jacksofapple.redroom.com/files/images/201112965939486621_8[1].100x150.jpg)
Can I comment intelligently on the most recent horrors in the Middle East? Can I not? Do I have the facts? Does anyone? So I will not take the side of this or that religion, this or that ethnicity, this or that government, and I will insist that a rose is a rose is...
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2 comments
Toni Morrison says, “If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” So I have. HIGHWAY TO OBLIVION.”
About Mara
A naïve Maine native, I arrived at NYU eager to become a lawyer (until l met one!) so switched to Art History (all those beautiful slides!), studied anatomy and painting at the Art Students League, wrote art criticism for “The Villager” and handled foreign...
Connections
Causes Mara Buck Supports
Kennebec Valley Humane Society, Amnesty International